Forests and Wilderness Policy Summary

Older forests = healthy catchments & communities

The Greens are extremely disappointed that the NSW Government has failed to protect iconic River Redgum forests despite evidence that 75% of these trees along the Murray are showing signs of stress, decline or death. It has also failed to understand the unique role of older forests in maintaining stream flows during the dry times.
The Government has also broken its promises to regulate logging on private land including an end to logging rainforest, oldgrowth and threatened species habitat, and to close the Eden woodchip mill and end export woodchipping.

The Greens call for:

• the creation of a system of River Red Gum National Parks from State Forests along the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers and their tributaries with dedicated environmental water allocations for each of the new reserves to ensure proper environmental flows and appropriate flooding regimes;
• an end to clear felling and export woodchipping of native forests and closure of the Eden woodchip mill;
• support for Aboriginal ownership of such National Parks wherever that is sought by local indigenous nations;
• regulation of private land logging and funding of the purchase and  management of high conservation value forested lands, especially in coastal areas, Western NSW and the Riverina;
• an immediate end to broad scale land clearing to protect biodiversity and to arrest soil loss, river degradation and salinity;
• recognition that water is the highest value product which can be obtained from the forest estate and that increased water yield during dry periods is produced by older forests. As such, regrowth forests should be managed towards an oldgrowth state;
• optimal utilisation of the existing plantation estate to lessen dependence on native forests and the immediate implementation of incentives for a major reforestation program (for conservation and timber) as well as the establishment of mixed species woodlots;
• financial and employment assistance to communities, families and towns affected by forest conservation decisions; and
• a comprehensive overhaul of the retrograde provisions of the Forestry & National Park Estate Act (1998); the Forestry Regulations and reinstatement of third party rights.